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Luminox Watch to Sponsor Tourist Flights into Space

Luminox will sponsor the suborbital spaceship, Lynx - a winged rocket plane that will take tourists into space.

Paying passengers will be transported into the upper reaches of the atmosphere aboard the Lynx space plane, reaching altitudes over 62 miles. The first flights to take off from California's Mojave Spaceport are expected in 2013, and trips will begin from Curacao in the Caribbean a year later.

As an official partner, Luminox will provide each pilot and passenger of the Lynx with a special timepiece designed to withstand the G-Forces encountered in space. The Luminox logo will also appear on the side of the rocket plane.

Barry Cohen, Luminox founder, said: "We are extremely proud to become a part of this special project. Currently our product line is broken into three segments - Sea, Air and Land, but with this partnership, we will be introducing the fourth dimension - Space, early next year."

The Lynx plane is being developed by XCOR, an aerospace company in California. It contains just two seats - designed to carry one pilot and one passenger - and can take off and land using a conventional airport runway. It will be capable of up to four flights per day.

"The old ways of government-designed space exploration are slowly drifting away, and a new commercial space industry is being born right before you," said Andrew Nelson, XCOR's chief operating officer.

Tickets for the flights will be sold by SXC, a Netherlands-based space tourism firm, and will cost around $95,000 including pre-flight training sessions. 175 customers have already made reservations.

Michiel Mol, a founder of SXC, said: "In the dark, we felt our crew would need a special, yet to be developed watch. The technical knowledge of Luminox, combined with their ambition and spirit of adventure, proved them to be the perfect partner for us. They are the brand that can offer essential gear to our astronauts."